Veteran Affairs (VA) Executives could have their salaries doubled under proposal to Congress

Department of Veterans Affairs officials want to double the pay of top administrators and move them into the same employment classification as medical doctors. They say the new, lucrative employment classification, Title 38, would help retain talent and make it easier to fire poor performers.

There is little evidence that either of these statements is true.

Private hospital administrators make more than the $180,000 most VA directors earn. But private sector hospitals are unlikely ever to hire from among career VA bureaucrats, most of whom have unremarkable qualifications, rose to management through tenure rather than talent, and benefitted from a closed pipeline that rarely hires from the outside.

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Steve B

They want pay comparable to administrators of private hospitals? How about adding a non-negotiable requirement that any VA hospital administrator must have been in an equivalent position in a private hospital for no less than 6 years within the past 10 years. That's long enough that they'd have been fired for incompetence. It would offload the competency screening to the private sector. If you don't want to go that route...no problem...but no salary bump.

allwet

Chalk up another epic fail ......

Joni S

The key word here is " lucrative". You bet it is. Excellent pay, great benefits, never be fired regardless of what you do. Sounds like the best definition of lucrative I have ever heard.

TexJ3

How about they match the qualifications to that doubled pay along with the ability to can anyone that underperformed on evaluations (done like a normal organization), include firing ability on an at-will basis (in states where this is allowed), and do away with tenure? Furthermore, they thereby should have independent consultants from non-military or affiliated organizations clean up processes to ensure that waste and disorganized systems are eliminated or improved upon. Customer service must be at least one major factor of job performance markers. This would be a start. If, and only if, all of this was done, I could see an argument. This would assume, however, that all current top administrators are let go with rare exception. As in, all hospitals included in the wait list scandal ---fired. All included in the doctors that are paid but not practicing scandal ---fired. All included in the moving bonuses, approvals for special pay for made up positions scandal---fired. Equipment that didn't get cleaned for budget cut reasons scandal---fired. YP, I think, is the only person with anything good to state so Boise, you all can stay. The rest of you, most administrators--bye. Then, do a mass hiring and clean things up with better, more qualified personnel that are empowered to actually change things. That includes the ability to fire people and /or demote them. Take the new pay from the ridiculous art allowances and other wasteful areas. If the choice is to hire qualified outside parties verses contemporary art, hmmmm. Get a few good CPA consultants specializing in medicine to actually look at the processes with some of the personnel there process by process and work with best practice clinics and hospitals to make changes. (Why CPA consultants specializing in medical - this ensures the medical best practices are done along with consideration of cost effectiveness simultaneously and everyone is happy at the same time process by process. The right firms are trained to dissect each process with the parties that are individual stakeholders. Everyone wins.)
Of course, will the aforementioned occur? I also like unicorns. More likely, the double pay goes mostly to the same folks that are currently there unless we get a change in the White House and VA reform.

Ranie

Right. Congress has done nothing about the VA mess and doubling salaries as a solution to obtain better management is a ridiculous solution when it is a closed system that breeds incompetence.